The Enslaved Heir
by sumonespaztastic
Summary: When Elladan is captured, a slave boy is forced to torture him. Once Elrohir frees his twin and take the boy back to Imladris, why does he remind Elrond of some who should be dead? Full summary inside. Read and Review!


**I wrote this awhile back and just found it again. I reread and edited it and decided to post it.**

**Though you all should know this by now, I don't own a single thing.**

**Summary: Aragorn was never raised in Imladris as a child. When his father died, he disappeared off the map. Now, years later, Elladan has been captured and Elrohir rescues him. Who is the slave boy that was forced to torture Elladan? Why does Elrond find him so familiar?**

Elrohir was furious. No, he was beyond furious. A group of men had kidnapped and were torturing his brother. _Men_! When he got his hands on them, they'd wish they had never taken his brother. They had finally caught up with them, and he wanted to slaughter them as soon as he possibly could. His hand twitched to his sword at his waist.

"Wait." Glorfindel told the younger elf cautiously. "We need a plan, Elrohir. We need to watch them. Running in and attacking will only get your brother killed."

Grudgingly, Elrohir moved his hand away from the blade that he would kill the wretched men with later. From his spot hidden in a tree, he could see his brother tied to a wooden pole being whipped repeatedly by a small man who looked like he hadn't bathed in days and probably smelled like it too.

Elladan was covered in blood from being whipped for so long. Every time the leather torturing device came down on his back, he whimpered quietly in pain, and every time he whimpered Elrohir winced. He just wanted to charge in there and kill every man in his sight. Glorfindel apparently saw his eagerness to see blood. "Wait." He told him again. "Observe the enemy."

"But Elladan's being _tortured_." Elrohir protested. "How can I just wait?"

"Sometimes, the best thing for us to do, Elrohir, is the thing that hurts us the most. We need to know our enemies' weaknesses before we act and strike when their guard is down." Glorfindel told him as he gazed up as he heard the small man torturing Elladan yelp loudly. He saw another man walking away and how the man's strikes begin to come down harder. The captive elf, his dear friend, began to scream in agony at each blow. He had to hold Elrohir back from running out and doing something foolish.

He needed to form a plan, before Elrohir got them all killed. He saw six small tents the men had set up for a temporary camp. About ten men were roaming about outside of them. However, there could be quite a few more inside of them. There were seven elves in the rescue party to rescue Elladan. They could use their bows to kill the men and allow Elrohir to go after his twin. Sword-fighting would be bloodier and most likely result in more deaths.

At the sound of a particularly loud scream from Elladan as the whip struck him, Glorfindel almost ran into the men's camp and destroyed them all just as Elrohir wished to. Only many centuries of training prevented him from doing so. He knew none of the elves with him could watch their fellow be tortured before their eyes.

"Alright, here is what we are going to do." He started. All of the elves turned their attention away from Elladan to him. "Aglareb, Falath, you shoot down anyone who approaches Elladan. Narbeleth, you, Tathren, and Yaviere deal with the ones who comes out of those tents. I'll deal with anyone of the remaining men, and Elrohir will go to Elladan."

It was as good as a plan as any. Elrohir wouldn't last more than a few minutes with all of the wincing that he was doing. So, when Glorfindel yelled out a battle cry, the elf ran to his severely injured brother. When he reached him, he pushed the torturer away. He hardly even noticed that the whip had already dropped out of his hands.

He quickly cut through the bonds holding him to the pole. As soon as he was free, Elladan collapsed against him, allowing him to see the burns and infections that littered his entire body. The man had done this to his brother. He was the one responsible for the multiple injuries on his brother's body. He would pay dearly for it. The man would suffer for what he did to his brother, the pain he inflicted on him.

The next thing he knew, he had the torturer pinned to the ground with his foot and a blade to his throat. That was when he saw the man wasn't a man at all. It was a boy, who was thin and littered in bruises and blood that must've come from Elladan. The child was evil. Elrohir couldn't allow himself to think of him as anything other than a torturer. He had to think of him just as he would any other man. He had tortured his brother and had to pay the price for it.

There was no fear in the his eyes. The only thing Elrohir could see in the torturer's eyes was regret and humility. _'It's too late to show repentance.'_ Elrohir thought heatedly. He had beaten his brother so badly he wasn't able to stand and was nearly unconscious. The only way he could repent for what he had done was by dying. He deserved it, deserved it to be slow and painful. However, no matter how much Elrohir wanted to drag out the death, Elladan needed him more. He had to kill the torturer quickly.

As he prepared to slice the throat of the wretched boy underneath him, he was taken completely off guard by a shout of "No, don't!" Elrohir was shocked when a small boy ran up to him and the torturer and pushed his blade away with all his might. Then, he put up his hands in front of the older boy beside him, trying to disguise his fear by a look of determination behind his long unruly locks of blond hair.

Didn't the child know what the other boy had done? Surely he had witnessed him torture Elladan again and again. Why was he trying to protect him? Yet here he was, getting in between an elf with a sword whose fellows had just slaughtered every other human in the place to protect a person who had angered the elf.

What confused Elrohir even more was the expression on the torturer's face. It had a look of complete and utter terror instead of the repenting look he had donned just seconds before. It made absolutely no sense. No one who was able to torture someone such as his brother could care for others or have any sort of fondness to another person. Why was the torturer scared for the boy? Why was the boy trying to protect him?


End file.
